By Michael F. Rellosa EVEN the direst of situations can present a silver lining, or in this case, opportunities to improve the way things have always been done. This ongoing pandemic (and I do hope it ends soon) has hastened the digitization of the nonlife insurance sector. It has opened the eyes of the tradition-bound practitioners and alerted them to doing things faster, better, fairer, more efficiently and at far less cost. This encompasses almost the entire breadth of an insurer’s operations — from the product’s design and development, how it is underwritten, how it is distributed, how claims are adjudicated and processed, and how payments to (premiums) and from (claims) the company are made. There are various examples I could use for each specific class of business, be it fire, marine, casualty or personal accident, but allow me to zero in on motor car insurance as this is by far the most numerous in terms of policy count and premiums (it accounts for more than half of the industry’s total premium volume). In the not too recent past all the way to current practice, motor coverages/policies have been bought on an annual basis. They were underwritten (or for the uninitiated, risk-assessed) based on the make, model, age, use and engine displacement of the vehicle. The current pandemic highlighted the issues that this traditional way of underwriting had all along. Due to the lockdown, people were stuck at home and did not have to use their cars to work, go to school, shop, entertain and worship. This brought on the realization that perhaps we did not need insurance on an annual basis. The problem is the current way of underwriting and pricing the product only allowed for an annual cover. There was no impetus to change. As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke why fix it?” This then brought on the realization for the need of a “pay as you use” type of cover. This was already available in the more progressive countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan with other countries close on their heels. With the internet, information goes around at warp speed and you cannot keep people from learning about these new developments. Earlier, I mentioned the basis of underwriting a motor risk, but this in itself needed a revamp. Why base it on the vehicle? Would it not be a better idea to base it on the driver (age, gender, education, profession), or better yet on the way the driver actually operates or uses the vehicle. Is he a jackrabbit accelerator, does he swerve through traffic, overspeed, brakes unevenly or suddenly, or uses roads where there is a high volume of traffic or where a statistically higher number of road accidents occur? These are better and more accurate determinants of the safe usage of a vehicle and it likewise allows one to determine when or where the vehicle is being used. On top of that it allows the insurer to price and charge the coverage on a pay-as-you-use basis! The technology is already here to make this happen. There is an iteration where a contraption akin to an airplane’s black box is plugged on to the electronics of your car. However, the gadget did cost an amount and, in most cases, voided the warranty of brand-new vehicles. There is another iteration which did not require a gadget to be plugged into your vehicle but just required you to download an app for free into your mobile phones which you had to keep on and on you while you drove. OK, call it creepy as it shared information of your driving habits, places you frequented, present location with the insurer, but on the other hand it affords a whole new way of being insured, not to mention the other positives like security, fleet management, rewards points, safe driving incentives and a host of others. The timing to introduce this is also right as our insurance regulators have their thumbs to the insuring public’s pulse and have introduced a sandbox regulatory approach to these novel products or ways of doing things. This would mean less stringent (read faster) ways of approving things with the insuring public and, if I may say so, the insurers themselves as both winners in the end. Source: manilatimes.net

By Herminia S. Jacinto President, Insurance Institute for Asia and the Pacific IT has been seven months since the lockdown was first imposed as the government wanted to control the entry of the feared coronavirus into the country. They wanted to control the movement of people to prevent transmissions just in case some had already contracted the virus. This was the very first time that a lockdown stopping all activities, including education and business, was experienced by the whole country. Companies were stunned by the directive to close down offices and work from home. How to sell products, meet with clients, customers and other business partners became a huge problem. How did the various industries react? Each one had to create their own new systems and procedures. Creativity and imagination coupled with presence of mind became the order of the day. How did the insurance industry respond to this sudden change? As offices had to close, clients who needed to transact business with the companies had nowhere to go. Insurance, heretofore, has been sold on a face-to-face or person-to-person basis by people trained to do so. These are the agents, agencies, financial advisers, brokers and other frontliners who service their clients’ needs personally. Suddenly there were restrictions about face-to-face meetings! After the initial shock, companies immediately put into place new systems and procedures to get back to the new normal of doing business. Many companies were already engaged in various forms of computerization so that all they had to do was to add the functions that are urgently needed to keep on operating like in pre-virus days. Technology has been the saving factor that countered the negative impact of the pandemic on business. Companies can now sell policies using some applications that are readily available in the market. Agents and financial advisers went online and sent notices to their clients and prospective clients that they could go “shopping” for their insurance requirements online. Even before the pandemic happened, the agents had long been using their gadgets in selling and prospecting; all they had to do was to make some more enhancements on their programs. Companies focused on improving their existing systems like installing a portal where clients can file their claims or check the status of pending claims. The clients can also submit to this portal some documents that are required to process the claim. And all this can be done 24/7. Working from home was implemented in various forms. Alternate teams work one week and other teams take the succeeding weeks. For those who have to be physically present in the office, quarantine passes have to be secured from the authorities and strict protocols have to be observed. Companies provided transport services for these employees during the time when there was no public transportation at all. The insurance companies are supervised by the Insurance Commission and many of its products and procedures are governed by various rules and regulations promulgated by this office. The regulator did not disappoint or disappear. They were with the industry from Day One in finding the solutions to the problems created by the lockdown. Immediately, the Insurance Commission allowed employees who are in charge of health, accident and personal lines to report to the office to service clients personally. Submission of reports and other requirements were either relaxed or deferred to future periods when companies have adjusted to the current situation. Where are we now? Almost back to normal operations but with alternative ways of selling and managing the insurance business. We continue to study and learn as shown by the very good attendance in the webinars on digitalization and other topics intended to improve the ways of doing business. We take pride in having installed work schedules that allow us to service our clients and at the same time keep our precious employee force safe and coronavirus-free. We are currently hosting (virtually, of course) the Asean Insurance Council. Meetings being attended by representatives from the regulators and the insurance industry of 10 nations of the Asean, which meetings would have been held in Cebu. To our clients and our business partners — the insurance industry continues to be at your service! Source: manilatimes.net

By Michael F. Rellosa PIRA Executive Director THIS is my 37th year in an industry that has been in existence for hundreds of years. Yet I still find myself trying convince people that insurance is an efficient but underrated method of protecting one’s hard-earned assets. Creating or building one’s assets is a topic that gets a lot of attention; so bankers, capitalists, businessmen and their ilk are deemed sexy, but insurance? Forget it, nobody gives a second thought about insurance unless it is mandated or until people want to collect the proceeds of a claim. Unbeknownst to many, however, insurance is part and parcel of the financial world and the world economy would grind to a halt if it were not for insurance. No banker would lend money or give credit if the borrower does not put up something he owns as collateral. Furthermore, bankers are shrewd individuals and they make sure that these assets put up as pledges to loans are insured and thus protected against perceived risks such as fire and its allied perils. So, no insurance, no loans; no loans, no capital; no capital, no goods, machinery and labor. I may be oversimplifying things, but that’s because I want to make insurance understandable to all. We live in a country that is the third most vulnerable to catastrophic perils, after two tiny Pacific island nations with populations less than that of a single Philippine municipality. Our archipelago lies smack in the middle of a typhoon highway and along the earth’s most seismically active region known as the Pacific Ring of Fire. We are visited by no less than 22 typhoons every year, and tremors and volcanic eruptions are common occurrences. We have a population of over a hundred million where a majority live and work in densely packed cities such as Metro Manila. Can you imagine the extent of damage that can occur should a major typhoon or the dreaded “Big One,” an earthquake generated by the West Valley Fault System, happen? However, these are not the only risks that we face. There are many others such as road accidents, pandemics such as the one we currently find ourselves in, liabilities that we may be exposed to because of our profession, business, or even our personal lives. Living is fraught with danger and we must be able to manage the multifarious risks that we face. Sure, there are many things that we can do to address this. If we do not want to contract the dreaded coronavirus or get run over by a bus, we stay home and thus avoid it. If we don’t want our homes burgled or our cars stolen, we can always wire them with alarms and CCTV and spend our resting hours eyes glued to the monitor and ears to the alarm system just to make sure. If we do not care about any of these, we don’t do anything, only to rue the day the Big One happens and we lose our hard-earned house that we spent years furnishing and beautifying, in an instant. These methods of handling risks on its own or taken in various combinations, are well and fine but may be impractical at times and are not the only answer. Tired of worrying about a possible loss of your assets and tired of avoiding, mitigating and/or retaining these risks for yourself? There is one other risk handling method to add to your toolbox called risk management and this is risk transfer, aka insurance. What if you just wanted to enjoy the fruits of your labor without worrying about what may happen to it and where to get the funds to rebuild, replace or repair it should any of the dreaded perils occur? Then transfer the risk to someone else whose business it is to assume those risks and pay you the monetary equivalent of your loss, or at least repair or restore your property to the condition it was in, immediately prior to the loss. This, in a nutshell, is what insurance is all about. For a small amount, called the premium, the insurer assumes the risks that you used to face on your own, and you are assured of keeping your assets or at least its value intact for yourself and your heirs. There are many kinds of risks that one can protect one’s assets from, but that will have to wait as I have already run out of space. Source: manilatimes.net

By Michael F. Rellosa THANK God we (barely) survived being pummeled by successive typhoons, but what misery and heartbreak it caused us hapless mortals. Loss of life and limb may have been minimized, but loss of or damage to our hard-earned property, our houses, our cars and our means of making a living have not. In the past few weeks ending just before last weekend, the Philippines was battered by a string of typhoons — Typhoon “Quinta” (“Molave”), Typhoon “Rolly” (“Goni”), severe Tropical Storm “Siony” (“Atsani”), Tropical Storm “Tonyo” (“Etau”), Typhoon “Ulysses” (“Vamco”) — all of them wreaking havoc on our people, their properties and their livelihoods. How can we lessen the impact of these increasing number of unusually powerful weather disturbances exacerbated by climate change? We can risk-manage and shore up our houses, retrofitting them to withstand stronger typhoons or other catastrophic perils such as floods and earthquakes through such measures as using four-sided roofs (cuatro aguas), building on stilts to lessen the force and effect of rampaging waters, be it storm surges or flash floods, using reinforced concrete and tempered glass for windows, installing storm shutters to protect windows, eliminating eaves to strengthen wind resistance, building away from slopes and water, and adhering faithfully to building codes. These are all possible and desirable but adds to the building costs, which not everyone can afford. We can plan ahead, and once warnings are up, park our cars in protected and elevated areas to ensure that they are safe from being submerged in floods. Sandbag entrances and drains to keep flood water out of our houses. Weigh down our roofs with sand bags as well as strap all objects that can be pried loose and become flying projectiles. These may be cheaper alternatives to the former but are not as reliable. I could go on with numerous examples. However, there is one way that we can always rely on, and this is passing all this risk and the worry that goes with it, to someone else. This is known as risk transfer or insurance. For a fraction of the cost of retrofitting, or building to exceed the code, we can pay a small price for the insurance premium and be assured that if our property (house or car) gets damaged, partially or totally, the insurer would foot the bill to either replace it or have it repaired to the condition that it was in immediately prior to the loss or damage. You are therefore assured that you would still have your property to use and enjoy. There are a number of people though, who view insurance dimly. This I think is due to a poor understanding of how it works and what it can offer. The key here is communication and an openness to share information on both sides, the insurer and the insured. Very few insured take the time to understand their coverages and fewer still bother to read their policies, much like very few of us bother to read the manuals that come with our cars or electronic gadgets, relying instead on trial and error to get them to work. We do not have the same leeway with insurance. Once our houses or cars are damaged, and we find out we do not have the right coverage, it will be too late to do anything about it. My advice would be to talk to an insurance professional, be it an agent or broker or the insurer himself, tell them exactly what you want to be covered against. They will then respond with what is available in the market and how much it would cost. I would also advise that you go through the fine print of your policies together. Ask questions, especially when you discuss what are and aren’t covered (coverages and exclusions). Make sure that what you want covered is written into the policy. Always remember that you have the right to make changes to the policy by advising them and asking them to endorse the policy accordingly. If it is to waive a certain exclusion, then perhaps there would be a corresponding additional premium charge. Keep all records of communication and agreements in soft or hard copies, together with the policy documents. Once happy with the policy, and with your questions answered, you can rest assured that all will be in order should the feared peril occur. No problem. You are insured. Source: manilatimes.net

By Michael F. Rellosa IT has been raining cats and dogs on both sides of the Pacific. California has been experiencing unprecedented rains and is currently experiencing record floods. The Philippines, despite the supposed onset of the dry season, is experiencing unseasonal low pressure areas (LPAs) that are bringing rains to the entire country and torrential rains to parts of the Visayas and Mindanao, with the Zamboanga peninsula as the worst hit. Scientists and meteorologists have long been warning us of climate change and the resultant aberrant weather, but is anyone really listening? We are used to typhoons hitting our land periodically but over the past decade or so, these typhoons have morphed into super typhoons so much so that our Pagasa weather bureau has amended the warning system to include increased typhoon signals, Wind warnings, rain warnings and storm surge warnings that took us time to comprehend. Now even the ubiquitous monsoon (habagat or amihan) can bring rains that cause disastrous flooding. The Philippines is now considered the most vulnerable nation to natural and catastrophic perils, yet are we taking heed? The estimated insured losses of the recent Typhoon "Odette" has topped the P30 billion mark and both insurers and reinsurers are reeling. Do we really need a string of disasters to take note and proactively shore up our insurance industry to be able to adequately and timely respond to these loss events? The recent reinsurance treaty renewal season for January 1 incepting treaties has unequivocally shown that the international market has hardened. International reinsurers have imposed difficult terms and contract conditions for our local direct writers. For instance, for non-proportional treaties, portfolios which have suffered losses, are slapped with 13.8 percent to 50 percent in premiums on a risk-adjusted basis. Catastrophe excess of loss treaties with no losses still experienced rate increases from 14 percent to 40 percent. Higher XOL deductibles are common, prompting local insurers to drop their existing first layers to save on costs. This merely means they buy less protection and keep the risk for themselves, thereby reducing their capacity to write new local covers. Meanwhile, for proportional treaties, reinsurance commissions reductions are observed across the board. Standard commissions are reduced by as much as 2 percent, Nat Cat commissions by an average of 4.5 percent, sliding scale commissions by an average of 7.5 percent and profit commission by as much as 5 percent. On top of this, event limits are reduced to as low as 1X the treaty limit. A new loss participation condition was imposed on several participants and aggregate loss limits were also introduced. What is extremely worrying is that for both portfolios, with losses and no losses, there is a decreased capacity, beginning from 30 percent upwards. That means reinsurers who are willing to gamble on the Philippines are limiting their exposures, while there are major insurers that have opted out and have exited the market altogether. This does not bode well for both Philippine insurers and insured. In the worst-case scenario, we will be left with less access to desperately needed coverage and if we are lucky to have access, it may be prohibitively expensive, all at a time when we need it most. Over the past two years, and as I have mentioned in previous columns, the local non-life insurance industry has been deep in discussions on whether to continue the tariff regime or to go completely free market. After much study and debate, it was agreed to work toward a free market but in controlled stages. We began by addressing the long-neglected catastrophe peril rates as they have not been changed in at least 16 years. Do take note that in those years and years preceding, the country has been experiencing a string of losses due to the damage brought about by the ever-increasing typhoons and weather disturbances that have visited our shores. As insurance depends on data, the information on loss and premiums were analyzed using both traditional underwriting factors as well as being passed through various proprietary models then reviewed by actuaries to ensure its accuracy. This was done collaboratively by local and international experts who have had previous experience with similar programs in other countries similarly situated such as New Zealand, Indonesia, other countries where Cat Coverages need to be addressed. These experts proposed a rate of 0.4 percent versus the current minimum Cat Rats of 0.15 percent. However the pragmatic industry practitioners foresaw that this might shock the market needlessly and proposed a partial and interim increase to 0.2 percent instead. The Insurance Commission saw merit in this as it indeed shores up the industry, preparing it to be able to build up strength, purchase proper reinsurance protection and be able to provide additional protection for the populace who will be needing more of it. Alas, certain well-placed, influential, and powerful parties who perhaps do not see or appreciate the bigger picture nor had the chance to be enlightened by facts, have reacted negatively and spoke against the badly needed increase. Given the hardening international reinsurance market on which the Philippine insurance industry is heavily reliant, we are now faced with higher reinsurance premiums, higher deductibles (attachment points), and much less capacity. The new circular of the IC, putting the interim increase in Cat Premiums in suspended animation, has spooked the markets at a tough time. I pray that we will not experience any more Ondoys or Odettes in 2023 or until the matter is resolved. Source: manilatimes.net

The insurance regulator will conduct a study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality trends and life insurers' claims experience. The 2022 Philippine Intercompany Mortality (PICM) study will be conducted by the Actuarial Division of the Insurance Commission (IC) and the Actuarial Society of the Philippines, the insurance regulator said in a circular dated 29 December 2022 posted on its website. All life insurance companies, with life insurance policies issued on or before 31 December 2020 are to participate in the 2022 PICM study. The deadline for the submission of data is on 3 February. The study aims to examine the industry’s mortality experience compared to the 2017 PICM Table and the impact of COVID-19. The study will not result in an updated mortality table, the IC said. “The analysis of the mortality claims experience, as significantly affected by the pandemic, is imperative in analyzing its impact on pricing adequacy and the industry’s financial stability,” it added. The regulator said that the study will be conducted using policy count and will only cover direct, standard risk, and individual business. It will cover experience from policy anniversaries in 2014 to 2021 and track experience by policy duration. The data shall include all direct business on basic standard individual ordinary (whole life, endowment, term) and variable life policies issued on or before 31 December 2021 but have not been terminated in any manner before policy anniversaries in 20'14. “The study aims to analyze the experience under various study parameters, such as age, gender, product type, distribution channel, and underwriting basis,” the IC said. “The IC will conduct an initial review of the data submission on a company level and may ask the company representative questions or clarifications related to the submission. The companies are requested to keep all files used and generated (input and output) and data certification reports for at least three years,” the regulator added. Source: asiainsurancereview.com

Over a third of insurance industry says inflation will be their biggest challenge in 2023 according to a new poll conducted by GlobalData. The poll reveals that inflation ranks several notches ahead of challenges like climate change, digitalization, regulation, COVID-19 and geopolitics. The poll found that the record-high inflation and the consequent cost-of-living crisis will be the greatest challenge faced by the insurance industry. It said the consumers are more squeezed than ever financially and insurers may need to be flexible and innovative in order to retain customers. Inflation was ticked as the top challenge for 2023 by 36.4% insurers while digital transformation at 17.9% ranked second with climate change at 9.9% and regulatory changes at 7.9% and cyber crimes at 6.6% followed. GlobalData senior insurance analyst Ben Carey-Evans said, “Insurers will face inflationary pressure themselves in terms of the cost of running their business and claims costs will rise as a result of supplies and work becoming more expensive. He said, “While insurers would usually pass on higher claims costs to consumers in the form of higher premiums, individuals have less disposable income than ever, with the cost of living soaring and wages remaining stagnant. This will make it hard for insurers to push through premium rate increases while not losing customers and seeing penetration rates fall.” GlobalData’s survey found that across personal lines products, consumers are conducting more research at renewal but not necessarily switching more. This means insurers that offer some point of differentiation are likely to pick up more new business, as consumers are increasingly looking for any added value they can find. This could include increased flexibility such as the ability to switch cover on and off, only paying for exactly what they use (pay-per-mile), or even payment breaks (as was seen during the COVID-19 pandemic). Mr. Carey-Evans said, “Overall, it will be difficult for insurers to make a profit from premiums and maintain penetration rates in the short term. It may be wise to take a long-term approach to try and keep existing customers happy and gain new ones by offering consumers more flexibility as financial difficulties increase at the start of 2023.” Source: asiainsurancereview.com

Asia-Pacific (APAC), world's most disaster-prone region, experienced major disasters in 2022 with floods being the deadliest accounting for 74.4% of disaster events in the region and 88.4% of total deaths globally. The disasters ranged from floods in Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Thailand, drought in China, Kiribati and Tuvalu, typhoons in the Philippines, heatwaves in India, Japan and Pakistan and earthquakes in Afghanistan, Fiji and Indonesia. According to a new assessment report by the Bangkok-based UN-ESCAP these events provide insights on the major drivers and bring forth a few action points. The 2022 Pakistan floods affected 33m people and caused 1,739 deaths. The World Weather Attribution study released in September 2022 showed ‘fingerprints’ of climate change on this extreme monsoon rainfall in Pakistan. Bangladesh and India also experienced floods in 2022 which affected 7.2m and 1.3m people respectively. In 2022, India and Pakistan recorded their warmest ever March and April. The pre-monsoon period in South Asia is usually marked with excessively high temperatures, especially in May, but scientists believe that the early heatwaves were a consequence of persisting north-south low-pressure patterns which formed over India during winter when La Niña phenomenon occurs in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Indonesia, which sits on the ‘Ring of Fire,’ witnessed a deadly earthquake claiming over 330 lives in November 2022. Afghanistan, located on the Alpide belt, the second most seismically active region in the world after the Pacific Ring of Fire, was impacted by an earthquake in June 2022 with over 1,000 deaths. In the case of compounding risk, simultaneous hazard events took place followed by their respective or combined impacts. As Afghanistan was already simultaneously struggling with perennial conflicts, pandemic and disasters, the June earthquake led to a number of impacts and resulted in a substantially accumulated residual impact, which then became further multiplied when unseasonal rainfall and floods arrived shortly afterward. The year 2022 also witnessed cascading disasters where a chain of hazard events took place followed by the initial and residual impacts. Pakistan witnessed melting glaciers from the record spring heat and this combined with an unprecedented monsoon rain resulted in a historic flooding that devastated a large part of the country. It was a unique example of cascading disasters where a heat wave triggered the melting of glaciers and the event converged with a large scale monsoon resulting in drawn out flooding and attendant water-borne diseases. Source: asiainsurancereview.com

In the Asia Pacific region, losses from natural disasters increased to approximately $70bn in 2022 with insured losses rising to around $10bn, according to global reinsurance giant Munich Re. Mr. Achim Kassow, a member of the board of management of Munich Re, responsible for APAC, said, “Losses from natural disasters in the Asia Pacific and Australia in 2022 were around $70bn, which is $10bn more than in the previous year. What is alarming is that only a small proportion of this was insured, at around $9bn. When we exclude the largest insured losses in Japan and Australia, the insurance gap in the region extends up to 97%.” He also said, “More needs to be done in the emerging markets to protect people and insure their growing assets against the financial shock of natural disasters – especially as weather disasters become more extreme due to climate change.” Disasters As in the past, industrialized countries accounted for a high proportion of insured losses. Apart from the floods in Australia, an earthquake in Japan not far from the site of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake was the disaster with the highest insured losses in the region. The quake had a magnitude of 7.4, according to JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency), and caused overall losses of $8.8bn, of which $2.8bn was insured. Twelve years ago, a much stronger earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami and ultimately caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster. In terms of overall losses, the 2022 earthquake was the second-costliest natural disaster in the Asia Pacific region after the floods in Pakistan. In many instances, disaster losses in developing countries in Asia are almost totally uninsured. On the subject of the extreme financial consequences of natural disasters in poorer countries like Pakistan, Mr. Ernst Rauch, chief climate scientist at Munich Re said, “Better prevention and early warning systems must contribute to improving protection for people. In addition, the Loss and Damage Fund agreed at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt and the Global Shield initiative presented there need to be promptly implemented as viable instruments. Also, binding, regulated compensation payments can help protect more people against the immediate financial consequences of disasters.” In China, a protracted heatwave and drought, with temperatures of over 44°C in many parts of the country, led to water shortages and crop failures. The water level in the Yangtze, the longest and economically most important river in the country, receded significantly, as did the levels in many other rivers and reservoirs. In some areas, shipping was suspended and the electricity yield from key hydroelectric stations fell drastically. Several large industrial corporations had to temporarily suspend production. According to rough estimates, the damage, including losses from crop failures, could be in the mid-single-digit billions, virtually none of which will have been insured. Global Nat CAT losses in 2022 With overall losses of around $270bn (2021: $320bn) and insured losses of roughly $120bn (2021: $120bn), 2022 joins the recent run of years with high losses. Overall losses were close to the average for the last five years, while insured losses were significantly above average (2017–2021: $ 97bn). The continued high level of insured losses is impacting insurers at a time when they are having to deal with both high inflation rates and a shrinking capital base due to rising interest rates. In contrast, the positive effect on investments from higher interest rates will only come in time. Mr. Rauch said, “Two factors should be kept in mind when considering the 2022 natural disaster figures. Firstly, we are experiencing La Nina conditions for the third year in a row. This increases the likelihood of hurricanes in North America, floods in Australia, drought and heatwaves in China, and heavier monsoon rains in parts of South Asia. At the same time, climate change is tending to increase weather extremes, with the result that the effects sometimes complement each other.” While US hurricane Ian caused the highest losses in 2022 by far, NatCats in Asia ranked 2-5 on the global list. Source: asiainsurancereview.com